... But they could also note with satisfaction that they were becoming the new focus of national politics, that their power was no longer regional, but could permanently assert itself in Washington, even after the demise of Lyndon Johnson. Normal rules do not apply In 1992, during Richard Cheney's time as Secretary of Defense,'...the Pentagon...paid Brown and Root $3.9 million to produce a classified report detailing how private companies – like itself – could help provide logistics for American troops in potential war zones around the world. Later in 1992, the Pentagon gave the firm an additional $5 million to update its report.... That same year ...

... endless ticking of boxes and filling of forms as bureaucracies try to invent way of measuring, monitoring and increasing the performance of human beings. All God's children got performance targets; and, of course, many of God's children find ways to fake them. An absolute classic of the genre was reported by AP on 6 June 2001: 'The Pentagon agency charged with rooting out fraud destroyed documents and substituted fakes to win a passing grade in an audit of its own operations, according to an internal inquiry.' Inspired by this I began cutting stories describing attempts to fake it by this government and other official bodies. And even in my fairly casual search there were quite a few ...

... domain) by the US State Department Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization since 2005. (Klein, 2007, p. 282) As regards the role of corporate mercenaries in the preparation for war with Iran, Cameron appointed right-winger Liam Fox as Minister of Defence precisely to pursue exactly the same kind of privatisation agenda pursued by Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon from 2000. (Klein, 2007, pp. 293-305) While Rumsfeld was saved from the Joint Chiefs of Staff by 9/11, it was this privatising zeal that led Liam Fox into an inappropriate relationship with lobbyist Adam Werritty that eventually cost him his job.24 Before Fox went, however, he oversaw the transformation of the Royal ...

... for Anzus in New Zealand. The US State Department said it "concerns us because the proliferation of nuclear-free zones... could affect our ability to deter the Soviet Union". After the election Washington showed its displeasure with the result by failing to send the traditional note of congratulation to the new government. State Department 'gratified', Pentagon 'delighted'Since May 14 the US has been careful not to express too much enthusiasm for the coup, and just as careful not to condemn it. The State Department position, first expressed on May 15 was to "affirm" to Rabuka "the importance of respect for democratic traditions and processes" without suggesting that he had shown ...

... fire at Kennedy; the death a bonus.) This was true, for example, of some of the many attempts by the OAS (Secret Army Organisation) to kill De Gaulle in this period. But it is difficult to believe that any of the powerful elements in the U.S. state apparatus-- the intelligence agencies or the Pentagon, for example-- would have felt it necessary to ambush Kennedy if they just wanted to get rid of him or change some of his policies. For such agencies there are always better, less public ways of persuading people to resign, permanently if necessary. Planes can crash, cars run off the road, boats sink, ...

... military's only enduring infrastructure in Africa', notably for drone attacks. The Congressional report further comments that 'Africa's exports of crude oil to the United States are now roughly equal to those of the Middle East, further emphasizing the continent's strategic importance.’ 1 Unlike its mega-embassies and military bases in Iraq, Kosovo, and other strategically important locations, the Pentagon has smaller, mobile bases across Africa. The Congressional report tells us that these 'facilities [are known] as "lily pads", or Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs), and [enable] access to locations in Algeria, Botswana, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone ...

... The Independent 24 July 2002, Kim Sengupta wrote: 'The move follows reports of disagreements between Sir Michael and the Government on a number of issues, especially proposals for a war in Iraq. Sir Michael is among a number of senior British commanders who are said to question Britain's backing for a US invasion of Iraq, and are sceptical of Pentagon claims about Saddam Hussein's links with the al-Qa'ida terror organisation and his stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction.' (1) Even more off-message On 25 January 2004 The Glasgow Herald reported what were claimed to be the views of senior British intelligence figures in a 'pre-emptive strike against Tony Blair ahead of the public-cation of the Hutton report'. ...

... deficient US intelligence in Iraq and the unreliability of exiles and defectors, and the source code-named Curveball, in particular. Cannistraro said of former CIA chief George Tenet: 'He was very concerned about getting along with the administration.... and "playing along' really meant to sustain the conceptions of the policy makers – particularly at the pentagon and the Vice-President's office – that Saddam Hussein was a real and imminent danger. 'To do that, you had to accept some of these alarming reports that kept coming in, being fed by Ahmed Chalabi and his INC group. In many cases the information was fabricated information, for example, about an alleged attempt by Saddam Hussein to ...

... recasts events in this period as attempts by Kruschev and JFK to wind down the Cold War which were frustrated by their military-industrial-intelligence complexes who were making too much money and generating too many good careers for that to be accepted. Talbot conveys better than any other account I have read the conflict between JFK and those bits of the state, the Pentagon and the CIA, chiefly, which had serious vested interests in the Cold War. The centrepiece of Talbot's account of this conflict with the US military, is Cuba. For the military it was straightforward: the US had the strategic nuclear advantage (the 'missile gap' had been forgotten) and thus could and should invade Cuba. ...

... central thesis of that is that large budget, mainstream American movies,'....almost always express the notion that in its foreign policy, the endless wars in which it engages, America is always right, well-intentioned and frequently the victim. That this fantastic lie is in the films owes something (how much isn't clear) to the Pentagon and CIA liaison operations with the studios. "Wanna borrow a submarine? Talk to the Navy guy." If Alford isn't quite describing the corporations and the state running joint psy-ops, it will do until joint psy-ops come along.’ 1 While trying to finish Reel Power, he came across the strange story of a major Hollywood script writer ...